Gu Kuankuan didn't dare look at her mother.
She asked Lin Shumin and her daughter angrily, "What are you here for?"
"Tomorrow night, Young Master Lu of the foremost wealthy family and I are holding our engagement banquet at the Shengshi Grand Hotel. I came specially to invite you, cousin, and Auntie to attend."
Gu Xueyan's tone was full of boasting, deliberately emphasizing "foremost wealthy family."
"Sister-in-law, marriage is no trivial matter…" Lin Shumin said with an implied meaning. "Our Xueyan's engagement banquet has invited many important, influential figures; even the Hospital Director of a major hospital will be attending. Tomorrow, you must remember to come. I'll ask the Director to do us a favor and help you out…"
Listening to the mother and daughter sing their duet, Mother Gu felt worse than death.
Gu Xueyan was holding a grand, glamorous engagement banquet.
Meanwhile, her own daughter, for the sake of her husband's medical fees, had hidden it from her and hastily entered a flash marriage with a stranger…
Mother Gu coldly refused, "We've received your invitation, but Kuankan and I are both busy tomorrow night!"
She wouldn't give Lin Shumin and her daughter the chance to build their happiness on their pain.
"Cousin, ordinary people can hardly get access to a Hospital Director of a major hospital. Are you going to give up the chance to save Uncle?"
Gu Xueyan knew Gu Kuankuan's weakness all too well.
Mother Gu tried to stop her, "Kuankan…"
"Mom, I have to save Dad!" Gu Kuankuan cut her off, her eyes extremely determined.
Mother Gu knew her daughter's temperament and knew persuasion was useless. She held back her tears, her heart aching almost to death.
She wanted to demand of the heavens—why were they torturing their family like this?
Why?
"Cousin, that dress and those high heels you're wearing—did that man give them to you?" Gu Xueyan scoffed in disdain. "If that man can't afford the real thing, he could at least buy you an ordinary dress. But no, he actually gave you a high-end counterfeit."
Gu Xueyan knew that Gu Kuankuan now valued her father's medical fees more than her own life.
There was no way she would buy new clothes and new shoes at a time like this.
If that dress and those high heels were genuine, they would cost over two million in total.
If Gu Kuankuan had latched onto a rich man, she would have moved out of this shabby house long ago.
So Gu Xueyan concluded that Gu Kuankuan had been deceived by a bad man.
"Kuankan, your taste in men is truly terrible." Lin Shumin shook her head and sighed.
Gu Kuankuan's hands clenched tightly into fists as she coldly ordered them out, "You can leave now. Tomorrow, I will attend your engagement banquet!"
Compared to this mother-daughter pair, she trusted Lu Sui more.
At least from yesterday until now, ever since she'd met Lu Sui, he had behaved with complete sincerity.
Luxury brand clothing is often imitated or counterfeited by unscrupulous merchants.
Lu Sui had never been in a relationship and didn't understand what girls liked. He had probably simply seen that the dress was pretty and bought it, not knowing it was a counterfeit.
"Here's ten thousand. Kuankan, take it and buy yourself a decent dress and shoes. Don't wear a counterfeit tomorrow and embarrass yourself."
Lin Shumin pulled a thick stack of hundred-yuan bills and an invitation card out of her Hermès bag and tossed them on the ground in front of Gu Kuankuan.
The humiliation was unmistakable!
Then Lin Shumin left with Gu Xueyan.
"Slap!" Mother Gu couldn't help but slap Gu Kuankuan across the face.
Gu Kuankuan was instantly stunned, shocked and bewildered…
From childhood to now, her parents had never once hit her.
"Marriage is such a big thing—why didn't you discuss it with me? A flash marriage with a man you'd only met once? Huh? And you hid it from me, why…"
Mother Gu questioned her tearfully, grief and indignation in her voice.
"I went to Second Uncle's house to borrow money, but they wouldn't lend us any…" Gu Kuankuan began crying too. "I don't want Dad to die, but our family simply has no money left. What was I supposed to do? I don't want to lose my father… So even if it means sacrificing my marriage, I have no complaints."
Mother Gu pulled her daughter into her arms, sobbing uncontrollably…
Gu Kuankuan continued through her tears, "I don't know why Lu Sui agreed to a flash marriage with me. Our family has nothing left—what is there to be afraid of?"
Mother Gu couldn't find any words to argue. In their two encounters yesterday and today, Lu Sui's conduct had left her unable to find a single fault.
She looked at the red mark on her daughter's fair, tender cheek, her heart aching with both pain and regret.
"Kuankuan, I'm so sorry! Mom will go buy some ointment for you." With that, Mother Gu got up and went out.
Gu Kuankuan thought applying an ice pack would be enough.
But she knew that if she refused, her mother would only feel more guilty and upset.
Gu Kuankuan called Lu Sui.
"Lu Sui, my mother found out about my flash marriage with you yesterday."
Hearing that her voice was a little hoarse, as if she'd been crying, Lu Sui's heart tightened. "What happened?"
"My cousin's engagement banquet with Young Master Lu is tomorrow. She and my aunt came to deliver the invitation and happened to overhear me discussing with my mom about going to register the marriage with you tomorrow. Then they exposed our flash marriage." Gu Kuankuan told him.
Lu Sui's brow furrowed, and he was silent for a few seconds.
"I'll arrange for someone to help you move in a bit."
"Huh?"
His thoughts jumped too fast for Gu Kuankuan to keep up.
Lu Sui explained patiently, "To put your mother's mind at ease about moving into my vacant house, I played along with your act, saying we'd arrange the move after registering the marriage tomorrow. Now that she knows, we'll move today."
"I don't know if my mom will agree," Gu Kuankuan said hesitantly.
Lu Sui said, "If she doesn't agree, let me talk to her."
Not long after hanging up, Mother Gu returned with the ointment.
Gu Kuankuan went to wash her face, and while her mother applied the ointment, she said, "Mom, Lu Sui said he'll send someone over soon to help us move."
Mother Gu's hands paused, and she refused. "Tell him no need. We're fine living here."
"Then I'll call and tell him."
Gu Kuankuan waited until her mother finished applying the ointment, then called Lu Sui.
The call connected quickly.
"My mom says there's no need to move. We're fine living here," Gu Kuankuan told Lu Sui.
Actually, Gu Kuankuan did want to move.
Their current place was more than half an hour from the hospital.
If Lu Sui's vacant house was near the hospital, her mother wouldn't have to make that exhausting trip every day.
Lu Sui said, "Put your mother on the phone."
"Mom, Lu Sui has something he wants to say to you."
Gu Kuankuan handed the phone to Mother Gu.
"Lu Sui, I appreciate the thought, but…"
"Mom," Lu Sui cut her off, "the place you're living in now isn't safe at all. Kuankuan is beautiful—she could easily be targeted by criminals. Or, since Kuankuan is married to me, if you live there alone, Kuankuan won't be at ease either. Could you really bear to let her worry day and night?"
"If you feel uneasy living here for free, then pay rent based on what your current place would go for—500 a month."
Mother Gu looked at her daughter's small, palm-sized face, her skin white as a peeled egg, her features delicate and pretty.
She truly hadn't realized before what danger there might be in the two of them living here.
But now that Lu Sui had pointed it out, she couldn't help feeling a lingering fear…